EU support to regional film production

18 July 2014

On 15 July the opening ceremony of Directors Across Borders (DAB) Co-Production Forum took place. This is an annual event aimed at promoting talents and film production in Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. Director of the Golden Apricot IFF Harutyun Khachatryan, DAB Project Manager Susana Harutyunyan, Head of the National Cinema Centre of Armenia were invited to the event.
Irina Movsisyan, DAB coordinator from the EU Delegation to Armenia, expressed hope that the project would make cinema a vector for sustainable economic, cultural and social development: ‘This project is implemented with the EaP culture programme and it is in partnership with other countries of the region, namely Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey, and Moldova. Now it is in its last year of implementation’. She added that the project was based on such important aspects as networking, cultural exchange, and cooperation between filmmakers. ‘Cinema is both art and industry and this can surpass all other forms of cultural expression’, she noted.Susanna Harutyunyan, the DAB Project Manager, highlighted the importance of the project not only for Armenia but also for professionals from all the countries of the region: ‘I am proud to announce that within the framework of this programme we met over 300 people. More than 100 films were produced with the support of DAB project and the co-production forum. 8 years later we can tell a number of success stories on how young directors started their path in the film industry thanks to DAB, and later had their films presented at different festivals’.
As one of the most significant success stories Susanna Harutyunyan mentioned a film entitled “I am Going to Change My Name” by Maria Sahakyan, which received the first prize as the best Armenian fiction film in 2013. This year the film “Tribe” by Ukrainian director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy participates in the Feature Competition of Golden Apricot IFF: it received a development grant in 2012 within the framework of DAB.
Head of the National Cinema Centre of Armenia Gevorg Gevorgyan highly appreciated the activity the DAB implements; according to him such projects are very important for countries like Armenia, as they promote dialogue and inspiration sharing for professionals from different countries. ‘It is a great pleasure for me to see how significantly the number of people interested in regional co-productions grows year by year. I can clearly remember that last year this room was only half full of people, and this year I can see the progress‘.
After the welcome speeches at the launch of the Forum, the speakers started a discussion on the opportunities of co-production with European countries as well as within the EaP.
DAB Regional Co-production Forum is an EU-funded film development programme initiated in 2007 during Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival (GAIFF) in Yerevan, Armenia. The main concept of the DAB Forum is to facilitate cross-border cultural and economic collaboration between countries specifically within the Eastern Partnership Region and the EU by providing a networking platform for regional filmmakers and cinema support organisations and industry experts from around the world.

Related news sources

Subscribe

Thank you

For subscribing:

The Newsletter is produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of the articles are the sole responsibility of author/contractor/implementing partner and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.